1966 OMAs: Album of the Year

Because obviously

• September of My Years, Frank Sinatra

If you only listen to one song: Ticket To Ride, The Beatles

Sinatra

I first heard Sinatra in high school. I knew I could never be just like him, but I, at the very least, aspired to achieve that level of cool. (Or whatever the appropriately scaled version would be.)

It's weird to hear Sinatra singing songs about getting older -- here I am still aspiring and here he his looking back on his life, wistfully. It's a good album, but I may put it on the shelf for a while.

The Beatles

On my first run through of 1966's nominees, I listened to all of the albums in a row and this was the last album I previewed. About 30 seconds into the opening salvos of "Help!", I tore my headphones off and stopped the music: it was a surprisingly uncomfortable experience.

I get why people said rock and roll sounded like noise: it's because it sounds like noise. After my ears had acclimated to Sinatra, Eddy Arnold, Streisand, The Sound of Music... it was tough listening to it.

That said, I live in a world that's always had rock and roll: I can't imagine being a teenager and going through the transition in real life.

The Sound of Music

Full Disclosure: I've never seen The Sound of Music and I'd never listened to the soundtrack. As such, I feel uniquely qualified to say that these songs are amazing.

I know it's a not a particularly risky proclamation to say you love The Sound of Music. And I feel sort of silly for being so surprised... with all the childhood nostalgia at play, I expected the soundtrack to be "okay" or "actually sort of good...".

This is a rare occasion where the music was better than the hype.

The 1966 nominees for Album of the Year

• Help!, The Beatles
• My Name Is Barbra, Barbra Streisand
• My World, Eddy Arnold
• September of My Years, Frank Sinatra
• The Sound of Music Soundtrack, Various Artists (music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II)

Featured songs from this post: Spotify

The current One Man Academy (OMA) project is listening to the Grammy's Album of the Year nominees and re-choosing winners, absent of historical context.

All previous OMA Album of the Year Winners